Lost On The Road: One Awesome Waterbottle

About two weeks ago, I embarked on a lonesome, Saturday-morning, 18-miler on the lakefront. Despite the flurries, frigid temp (7 degrees real feel!) and bitter gusts of wind, I was so burnt out from treadie running that I didn't care how cold it was outside: I was hitting the road. Armed with a Nano-full of good music and podcasts, two gels (Gu not Clif, but that's a whole other story) and my super-cool Asics water bottle (see pic), I hit the road.

I will spare you the gory details; suffice to say, I completed only 17 miles, it took me almost three hours (yeah, ouch), and (sniff!), I had to ditch my trusty water bottle just south of the Oak Street beach (in that little park between the beach and Navy Pier). Despite jostling up and down in my hand for more than 8 miles, the water inside had frozen solid! And at that point, my hands had become so numb that I couldn't imagine carrying the cold rock of a water bottle back down the path. It was a casualty of a run. It was a sad moment, probably even sadder than it should've been due to the fact that I was exhausted, frozen, and in desperate need of some calories (no water = no way to eat those gels). It was aerodynamic. It had a soft mesh casing that slipped around my fingers. And it had a little zipper compartment where I could fold in some cash for an emergency. I like to think another runner jogged by it enough times that he finally decided the bottle had been forsaken--and then picked him up, washed him off and gave him a happy home. Although that the run is now just a memory, I still miss my bottle. Got any running gear you can't bear to part with? Posted by Liz